Are they in Southbank? Fishermans Bend? Montague or South Melbourne? and does it matter? Two towers are taking concrete form in Normanby Rd immediately opposite each other. Are they in a race to their 40 storey top? On the River side is Oakwood Premier, part of the Yarra Hotel group, at 202 – 204 Normanby […]
Main Content
Port & South
Naming
In a recent interview on ABC Radio, writer Bruce Pascoe reminded us that we can’t just keep on relying on the Australian history learned at school and that we all have a responsibility to learn, and to keep on learning, about our history. Port Melbourne’s history has been a bit of a side show to […]
Yarra & Bay
Finding the River
Over the time of isolation, I have spent some time near the River and become preoccupied with our relationship to our Yarra River, known to the the Woi Wurrung (Wurundjeri) and the Boon wurrung as the Birrarung, the river of mists and shadows. So I have prepared a series of walking explorations to get to […]
Docklands & Southbank
Towers on Normanby
Are they in Southbank? Fishermans Bend? Montague or South Melbourne? and does it matter? Two towers are taking concrete form in Normanby Rd immediately opposite each other. Are they in a race to their 40 storey top? On the River side is Oakwood Premier, part of the Yarra Hotel group, at 202 – 204 Normanby […]
Webb Dock & Port of Melbourne
Big, bigger, biggest
On a bitterly cold night when the tide was high, people gathered in small groups to watch a superload leave the Port. It was during Stage 3 lock down restrictions when such an event generated more than usual interest. We were there because the departure and route of the superload had been notified on the […]
Parks & Urban Nature
Seafarers Rest Park
The new Seafarers Rest Park on North Wharf is a step closer after City of Melbourne councillors last week enthusiastically supported the design concepts for further consultation. The new park, between the Mission to Seafarers and the River, will be comparable in size to the State Library forecourt, generally acknowledged to be one of the […]
History & Heritage
Staying at home – then and now
Tired of the reproachful pile of library books that will be returned partially read, I turned to the bookshelf instead to find Port Stories – a collection of transcribed oral history recordings taken at the Port Melbourne. Neighbourhood House around 2000. I was arrested by the accounts of life for children during the polio epidemic […]
People making change
Spring Cleaning The City
No rest for the committed. The day after the Global Climate Strike, it was the second Spring Clean the City. The gathering place was Queensbridge Square on the Southbank Promenade. Not so much a successful public square as an intersection of spaces that are moved through rather than lingered in. Even though the Red Stair […]